Plural compartment tumbler type washing machine



Jan. 13 1948. N, s, MQEWEN 2,434,468

PLURAL cormnmmw TUMBLER TYPE vmssme MACHINE Filed April 4, 1946 2Sheets-Sheet 1 M S. .Ml'l'wan Inven tor Attorney Patented Jan. 13, 1948PLURAL COMPARTMEN T TUMBLER TYPE WASHING MACHINE Fort Lauder-dale, Fla.,as-

Norman S. McEwen,

signor to Helpy Selfy Service S orporation of Florida Lauderdale, Fla,:1.

ystem, Inc., Fort Application April 4, 1946, Serial No. 659,578

8 Claims.

to washing machines of having for its object to is simple in con- Thisinvention relates the rotating drum type, provide a mechanism whichstruction and more eflicient in operation than those heretoforeproposed. More specifically the invention relates to washing machinescomprising a drum which is of substantially regular polygonal shapehaving imperforate internal partitions creating a plurality of washingcompartments, with means for supplying a washing liquid to each of saidcompartments through a portion of the shaft upon which the drum ismounted for rotation, and a dump valve for draining each compartment ofits contained liquid.

In addition the invention comprises such a drum as above indicatedwherein each partition extends from the center of the drum to asubstantially median point of a peripheral side of the drum, with thedlunp valve disposed at the juncture of two peripheral sides, and linkedreciprocable means carried by a stationary portion of the washingmachine for opening and closing said valve, and the means for supplyingthe washing liquid to each of said compartments comprises a. spiderhaving a hollow hub portion carried by the drum shaft and surrounding aportion of said shaft, with hollow arms extending radially from the hubportion and secured to the drum for rotation therewith, an arm for eachwashing compartment.

With these and ther objects in view the invention resides in the noveldetails of construction and combinations of parts as will be disclosedmore fully hereinafter and particularly covered by the claims.

Referring to the accompanying drawings forming a part of thisspecification and in which like numerals designate like parts in all theviews,

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a washing machine made inaccordance with this invention, said view taken as on the line l-l ofFig. 2 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

shape in accordance with the number of compartments desired (four beingshown in the drawings) which drum is mounted on a horizontal shaft forrotation, each compartment means of which the liquid contents of acompartment may be discharged from the compartment In order to furnishthe li vided for supporting the washing machine, said Fig. 2 is avetrical section view of the parts shown in Fig. 1, said view taken ason the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 3 is a detail view in section illustrating one means for operatinga dump valve used in the washing machine; and

Fig. 4 is a detail elevational view of the dump valve, said view takensubstantially on the line 44 of Fig. 3 and looking in the direction ofthe arrows.

The washing machine of'this invention comprises in general a drum ofregular polygonal framework on opposite sides being provided withbearings indicated at 2 within which the shaft generally identified bythe numeral 3 rotates. The drum generally identified by the numeral 4 issecurely mounted on said shaft, said drum in the drawings beingillustrated as of square formation though it will be understood thatother regular polygonal shapes may be provided, whereby said drum may beinternally divided by partition walls to provide plural compartments,the four compartments illustrated herein being identified by thenumerals 5, 6, 1 and said partitions extending from the shaft to saiddrum, this construction resulting in the maximum expulsion of containedliquid from the compartments under centrifugal action while I valves areopen. The dumpvalves are herein designated generally by the numerals 9,III, II and I2, and the spider arms are designated by the numerals l3,l4, l5 and IS, with respect to the compartments 5, 6, 7 and 8.v

'I'hespider comprises a hub 20 secured to said shaft externally of thedrum, said hub being hollow and having liquid communication with apassage formed in an extension 2i of said shaft, which extension passesthrough a supplemental bearing 22 for rotation therein and terminates ina stuffing box 23 into which leads a fixed nonrotatable pipe connection24 provided with a funnel-like open end 25 positioned to receive washingliquids from suitably valved supply pipes 26 and 21, one of said pipesadapted to furnish the washing solution and the other adapted to furnishhot and/or cold water, or a mixture thereof, as well understood inwashing operations. The spider arms i3, i4, i and iii are pipesextending radially from said hub to the vertices of the drumcompartments as indicated in Figs. 1 and 2.

Upon said shaft extension 2i is secured a pulley 28 adapted to be drivenas by a belt indicated at 29 from a pulley 30 mounted upon a shaft 3ireceiving power through suitable speed-reduction gearing from a suitablesource of power such as the electric motor indicated at 32 and carriedby the framework of the washing machine, a suitable clutch also beingprovided as well understood in order to govern actuation of the drumthrough the power drive just described.

The casing of the machine comprises a fixed lower portion 33 of suchshape as to permit the expelled liquids from the drum to gravitate tothe discharge or drain 34. The rest of the casing comprises a hinged orremovable upper portion 35, preferably of semicircular shape, againstthe inner surface of which the centrifugally expelled liquids mayimpinge and be directed by said surface downwardly into the lowerportion 33 of said casing. Each compartment is provided with a suitablewindowed door through which the clothes may be inserted and extracted,said door not being illustrated in the drawings, in the interest ofsimplicity, but well understood and having substantially liquid-tightengagement with a wall of the compartment.

The dump valve utilized in this washing machine is made substantially inaccordance with the valve forming the subject matter of a copendingapplication for patent by Norman S. McEwen filed May 2, 1945 under theSerial No. 591,477 and is particularly illustrated in Fig. 4. Said valvecomprises a nipple 40 serving as the outlet for liquids from acompartment such as 5, said nipple having a head outer end, said headhaving a laterally extending bracket 42 provided with a notch 43 intowhich fits the pointed fulcrum 44 of the valve arm 45.

One end of said arm carries a rubber washer 46 adapted to fit and closethe open end of said head, the other end of said arm carrying atransverse pin or rod generally identified by the numeral 41, one end ofwhich rod has the abutment 48 for a purpose that will appearhereinafter. Said arm 45 is bifurcated as clearly shown in Fig. 3 inorder to fairly snugly straddle the bracket 42. The washer 46 is securedat its center to one side of said arm a by a screw 49, and substantiallycoaxial with said screw but extending from the opposite side of said armis a post 50 for a purpose that will hereinafter be disclosed.

The bracket 42 at its lower end is provided with a suitable seat 5! forreceiving the lower portion of a coil spring 52, the end portions ofsaid spring extending curvilinearly upward over the arm 45 as indicatedin Fig. treme ends of said as indicated at 53,

spring engaging the post 50 said spring and notch 43 beattached to its3, with the exing so disposed, relative to each other, that when thevalve is open, as indicated in full lines in Fig. 4, said spring will beto the right of said notch, and when the valve is closed, as indicatedin dotted lines in saidgfigure, said spring will be to the left of saidnotch, wherefore said spring will be seen to provide positive mean formaintaining the valve under tension in either open or closed position.

Means are provided for opening and closing the valves, a practical meansbeing illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4, and such means may be mounted oneither the upper or lower portion of the casing as desired, though suchmounting is illustrated in connection with the upper portion. Such meanscomprises a U-shaped bracket 60 secured to said casing as at 6! and62,the legs of said bracket serving as bearings for a pair of push rod63 and 64 extending through the wall of said casing and having on theirouter ends the respective hand knobs 65 and 65 by means of which saidrods are axially slid in said bracket. These rods are of a length suchthat their innermost ends are moved into and out of the paths of thepins 50 and the abutments 48 of the dump valves.

That is to say, when the rod 83 is moved inwardly with respect to thecasing, its innermost end will be moved into the path of the dump valvesto an extent to intercept the pins 50 thereof so that, when said pinstrike the end of said rod, the dump valves will be actuated to open thesame as clearly illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4. The position of rod 63shown in Fig. 4 is at the instant that the pin 50 passes the same, atwhich instant it will be observed that the spring 52 lies to the rightof the fulcrum notch 43 whereby the valve will be maintained in openposition by said spring. When the rod 64 is moved inwardly with respectto the casing, its innermost end will be moved into the path of the dumpvalves to an extent to intercept the abutments 48 thereof so that, whensaid abutments strike the end of said rod, the dump valves will beactuated to close the same as clearly illustrated in said figures ofdrawings. The position of rod 64 shown in Fig. 4 is at the instant thatthe abutment 48 is struck thereby. causing a reverse pivotal movement ofthe valve arm 45 about its fulcrum to close the valve, in which pivotalmovement the spring 52 will snap to a position to the left of thefulcrum notch and thus cause said spring to maintain the valve in itsclosed position.

Means ar provided for insuring alternate simultaneous movements of therods 63 and 64 so that when one rod is moved to its innermost position'to actuate the valves, the other rod is automatically moved outwardly toan inoperative position with respect to said valves. Such a means maycomprise a toggle 61 the ends of which engage notches such as 68 and 69on the respective rods, said toggle having oscillatory motion by virtueof a pivot pin 10 operating at the center of said toggle, said pivot pincarried by an ear or lug 1| carried by said bracket 60 intermedlate saidrods 63 and 64. A spring indicated at 12 is provided between saidbracket and said toggle and so mounted and positioned as to havesnap-action to one side or the other of said pivot pin, whereby the rods83 and 64 will be given simultaneous movement in opposite directions,and will be maintained in the positions to which they are moved. This isa well known construction and, from the showings in Figs. 3 and 4, theoperation or said rods will be readily understood. The rods are sospaced from each other that when one is in position to actuate thevalves, the other will clear the portion of said valve which it isintended to operate, by virtue of the pivotal movement of the valve arm45 which permits either its pin 50 or abutment 48 to be moved intostriking positions relative said rods.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that by this inventionthere is provided a washing machine which is capable of handling, duringone washing cycle, more clothes than has heretofore been possible, dueto the provision of plural compartments. This increase in capacity isnot merely the result of pluralizing the number of compartments, butadditionally and very importantly due to the fact that this machinehandles the wash in such manner that the machine may be said to be inbalanced condition during such cycle. In other words, if the machine hasfour compartments as illustrated, and the total weight of the dirtyclothes is 40 lbs., then said clothes are divided into four piles eachpile weighing ten pounds, and a pile placed in each compartment so thatthe total weight of the wash is evenly divided during the rotation ofthe drum.

The necessary amount of washing liquid is admitted to each of the pluralcompartments through the spider arms, and the liquid level in eachcompartment observed through the windowed door thereof. Experience hasshown that each compartment should be approximately onethird filled withliquid, but of course this amount may be varied in accordance with thequantity of clothes in the compartment. If desired, valves may beprovided in the spider arms to regulate and maintain the quantity ofliquid per compartment.

In the washing operation the dirty clothes are first weighed and thendivided into as many piles as there are compartments, with substantiallythe same wei ht of clothes for each compartment. Then the dirty clothesare placed in the compartments with the necessary quantity of liquid,and power applied to rotate the drum for the washing stage. The speed ofdrum rotation for the washing need not be relatively great and thewashing may be conducted for from ten to fifteen minutes, after whichthe dump valves are opened, and the speed of drum rotation increased ifdesired to lessen the time for draining the compartments of the dirtiedwash liquid, after which said valves will be closed, the drum rotationstopped, and rinse liquid admitted to I the compartments. Then the drumis again rotated at about the same speed as was given to it for thewashing stage, the rinsing stage being conducted for about three minutesmore or less, in accordance with the nature of the clothes being rinsedand the belief of the operator that the rinsing has been sufiicient.Then the dump valves are gain opened and the drum given a high speed ofrotation, of the order of 1000 R. P. M., for the dry spin or extractionof the rinsing liquid from the clothes.

This relatively high rate of rotation of the drum can be practicallyaccomplished with a minimum of vibration due to the balanced con-'-dition of the load of clothes in the plural compartments. Further, thishigh speed of rotation will extract the maximum amount of liquid fromthe clothes so that, at the end of the drying spin, the clothes may bewithdrawn from the compartments and found to be in condition forimmediate ironing. The different rates of rotation of the drum for thewashing and rinsing stages, as well as for the drying spin, can beaccomplished by the provision of the aforementioned speed-reductiongearing and clutch or clutches. The complete cycle of washing, rinsing,and dryspinning need not exceed thirty minutes, which i a distinctadvantage, together with the balanced condition of the load, overwashing machines heretofore known. Additionally, the polygonal shape ofthe drum, together with the partitions providing the pluralcompartments, result in the provision of plural angles which assistmaterially in the circulation, agitation and/or other movement of theclothes in each compartment, or in other words provide means forstirring the clothes in a compartment and preventin the usual balling ofthe clothes.

. This permits maximum contact of the liquid with the clothes during therotation of the drum.

The dump valve illustrated and described is of course only one form of apractical valve for the purpose intended. An alternate dump valve couldbe one which was spring pressed against the outlet of a compartment, thetension of the pring utilized being calibrated so that the valve wouldnot open at the relatively small centrifugal liquid pressures createdduring the speeds of the washing and rinsing stages, but would openunder the increased and relatively great centrifugal liquid pressurescreated at a high (1000 R. P. M.) speed of rotation given for the dryspin, which high rate of rotation would also be given when washing andrinsing liquids were to be expelled from the compartment.

It is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details ofconstruction and arrangements of parts without departing from the spiritof this invention, wherefore it is desired not to be limited to theexact foregoing disclosure except as may be required by the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A washing machine comprising a drum of substantially regularpolygonal shape having imperforate internal partitions creating aplurality of washing compartments, one compartment for each peripheralside of the drum, a shaft upon which said drum is mounted for rotation,means for supplying a washingliquid to each of said compartments througha portion of said shaft, means for rotating said shaft, and a dump valvefor draining each compartmentof its contained liquid.

2. A washing machine comprising a drum of substantially regularpolygonal shape having radially extending imperforate internalpartitions creating a plurality of washing compartments, a shaft uponwhich said drum is mounted for rotation, means for supplying a washingliquid to 7 ternal partitions creating a plurality of washingcompartments, one compartment for each peripheral side of the drum, eachpartition extend- .ing from the center of the drum to a substantiallymedian point of a peripheral side thereof, a shaft upon which said drumis mounted for rotation; means for supplying a washing liquid to each ofsaid compartments through a portion of said shaft, means for rotatingsaid shaft,

7 and a dump valve for draining each compartment of it: containedliquid.

4. A washing machine comprising a drum of substantially regularpolygonal shape having internal partitions creating a plurality ofwashing compartments, one compartment for each peripheral side of thedrum, each partition extending from the center of the drum to asubstantially median point of a peripheral side thereof, a shaft uponwhich said drum is mounted for rotation, means for supplying a washingliquid to each of of said compartments through a portion of said shaft,means for rotating said shaft, and a dump valve for draining eachcompartment of its contained liquid, said valve disposed at the junctureof two peripheral sides of the drum.

5. A washing machine provided with a supporting framework and comprisinga drum of substantially regular polygonal shape having internalpartitions creating a plurality of washing compartments, one compartmentfor each peripheral side of the drum, a shaft upon which said drum ismounted for rotation, means for supplying a washing liquid to each ofsaid compartments through a spider secured to and rotatable with saiddrum, said spider having a hub surrounding a portion of said shaft,means for rotating said shaft, a dump valve for draining eachcompartment of its contained liquid, and means carried by the frameworkfor opening and closing said valve.

6. A washing machine comprising a drum of substantially regularpolygonal shape having internal partitions creating a plurality ofwashing compartments, one compartment for each peripheral side of thedrum, a shaft upon which said drum is mounted for rotation, means forsupplying a washing liquid to each of said compartments through aportion of said shaft, said means comprising a spider having a hollowhub portion carried by said shaft and a plurality of hollow armsextending radially from said hub portion, said arms secured to said drumfor rotation therewith, an arm for each compartment, means for rotatingsaid shaft, and a dump valve for draining each compartment of itscontained liquid.

7. A washing machine comprising a drum of substantially regularpolygonal shape having internal partitions creating a plurality ofwashing compartments, one'compartment for each peripheral side of thedrum, a shaft upon which said drum is mounted for rotation, means forsupplying a washing liquid to each of said compartments through aportion of said shaft, said means comprising a spider having a hollowhub portion surrounding a portion of and carried by said shaft. saidspider further having a plurality of hollow arms extending radially fromsaid hub portion, said arms secured to said drum for rotation therewith,an arm for each compartment, said hub portion having liquid conductingrelationship with a duct formed in said shaft, said duct leading to asource of liquid supply, means for rotating said shaft, and a dump valvefor draining each compartment of its contained liquid.

8. A washing machine provided with a supporting framework and comprisinga drum of substantially regular polygonal shape having internalpartitions creating a plurality of washing compartments, one compartmentfor each peripheral side of the drum, a drain for each compartment, ashaft upon which said drum is mounted for rotation, means for supplyinga washing liquid to each of said compartments through a portion of saidshaft, means for rotating said shaft, a'dump valve for draining eachcompartment of its contained liquid, said valve disposed at the junctureof two peripheral sides of the drum, said valve comprising a closuremember for the drain of the compartment, said member pivotally mountedupon an outer surface of such drain and provided with a springencompassing a portion of said member and engaging said drain forsecuring said member to such drain, said member having a post disposedto one side and a lateral abutment disposed to the other side of thepivotal mounting of said member, the ends of said spring secured to saidpost, and manually operable means comprising a pair of linked oppositelyreciprocable rods carried by the framework and movable alternately intothe paths of said post and said abutment to be struck thereby forcausing the pivotal movement of said member, one rod for causing openingmovement and the other rod for causing closing movement of said valveclosure member while said drum is rotating.

NORMAN S. McEWEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,979,237 Vetorino Oct. 30, 19341,487,907 Yates Mar. 25, 1924 2,374,247 Thaxton Apr. 24, 1945 192,027Sternberger June 12, 1877 2,094,749 Rabassa Oct. 15, 1937 408,690 BurtonAug. 13, 1889

